The chase to the playoffs is over for the Trenton Freedom, but not for the other teams in the Professional Indoor Football League.

That’s what worries Freedom coach Kevin O’Hanlon as he prepares his first-year team for its longest road trip of the season — a Saturday night visit to Huntsville, Ala. to face the Alabama Hammers.

Trenton became the first PIFL team to lock up a playoff spot last week with a 57-49 victory over Harrisburg that extended its win streak to five games.

At 7-2 Trenton is three games up on Lehigh Valley and Richmond in the PIFL National Conference with three games to play. So it is the first of two teams from its division that will be in the hunt for the PIFL championship starting in July.

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So what is the strategy for O’Hanlon and his team as it plays the first of three games against American Conference teams?

“We just have to execute our game plan,” says O’Hanlon, who knows that means another dominating effort from his defense — especially the guys up front.

“I know we’ll get pressure with our defensive line,” said O’Hanlon. “Gerard (Bryant) and Marques (Slocum) will get there. The issue is coverage on their receivers. Defensively, we’ve been a lot more active in practice this week.”

Alabama closes its season with three straight home games at the Von Braun Center and the defending champion Hammers (3-6) are battling for their playoff lives.

Alabama lost last week to Columbus, 39-31, to remain at the bottom of its division.

“Offensively, we played poorly and had too many penalties,” Alabama coach Dean Cokinos said of his latest setback. “On defense, we had two turnovers and five total stops and scored one touchdown. With that kind of performance on defense you should win the game in arena football.”

What worries O’Hanlon is how well Alabama throws the ball.

“Their passing offense is really outstanding,” says O’Hanlon, referring to quarterback) Russel Hill, a former Idaho State star who has impressive passing numbers — 86-for-161 for 1,270 yards and 20 touchdowns in five games.

Hill’s top receivers are Mico McSwain with 55 catches for 812 yards and 18 touchdowns and Charles McClain with 48 catches for 522 yards and five touchdowns.

Cokinos, who formerly coached in the Arena Indoor League, is confidenct his Hammers can make the plays it needs in the last three games to get back into the playoff hunt.

“Heading down the final stretch, we still can control our own destiny,” says Cokinos. “We have three home games and have to approach each like the one against the Freedom as a playoff game. There is still a lot of football to be played.”

Offensively the Hammers don’t run well on offense with just 57 rushing yards. Trenton averages 50 points and 252 yards per game offensively. Trenton had almost 500 more rushing yards than Alabama — 535 and 21 touchdowns on just 120 rushes.

Fullback Melik Brown, who missed last week’s game at Harrisburg with a wedding in the family, is Trenton’s top rusher at 69-for-243 with 11 touchdowns, while QB Warren Smith is 38-for-220 with seven scoring runs.